Hi Toby,

I am trying to write a custom parser for our log files since the default parser has some problems with special cases.
I have a first version of the custom parser, however I have problems correctly parsing log entries with multiple Lines.

Simplified Example:
2020.01.01 Test 1
2020.01.02 Test 2.1
Test 2.2
Test 2.3
2020.01.03 Test 4

From what I understand from the documentation the IsLogEnty method should return true when I detect a new log entry. In the above example this would be detecting if the lines start with a date, and in this case return true, otherwise false.

In the Parse method then I parse the given logentry line and fill the LogEntry class.

When I run the custom parser it basically works, however in the log entry grid for the second entry I only see the line "Test 2.1" and not the lines "Test 2.2" and "Test 2.3". I can see them in the original entry view, but I would also like to see them in the log entry grid.

In contrast when I use the Pattern Parser then the log entry grid shows all three lines. How can I achieve this with the custom parser?

Regards
Andreas

Hi Andreas,

This is an excellent question and something that I can see is missing from our documentation. 

You will need to implement the "IFinalizeLogEntry" interface.  Your implementation will be something like:

/// <summary>
/// Implementing IFinalizeLogEntry will give us a chance to process any unparsed data.  Unparsed data will
/// automatically be added to the OriginalLogEntry, but you may want to process it further.  Unparsed data
/// will be a collection of all lines where "IsLogEntry" returned false.
///
/// Here, we are adding the unprocessed data to the message for display in the LogViewPlus grid view.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="entry">The log entry to be finalized.</param>
/// <param name="unparsedData">Any data that could not be parsed.</param>
/// <param name="result">The result of the log parse.</param>
public void FinalizeLogEntry(LogEntry entry, string unparsedData, ParseResult result)
{
  if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(unparsedData))
    return;

  entry.Message += unparsedData;
}

I will put this in the sample code and update the documentation.  Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Toby

Hi Toby,

works perfect. Thanks!

Andreas

Glad to hear that is working for you Andreas.  Please let me know if you have any further questions or issues.

Toby